What happened in the editing cut between the stand down order and the funeral? Josh and Mutant Enemy et al own the sand box, they just let us play here. Enjoy.

Interludes V

Simon was concerned the next morning when he discovered that River was not in her bunk. Concern grew to panic when she was not in the galley or the cargo hold. Panic grew to terror when he discovered the top hatch was open. Maybe rigging an alarm to sound when it opened would be a good captainy thing to do? Maybe he should mention it to Mal.

"What's the deal," Jayne wondered why as he stumbled into the galley looking for food, and maybe a little coffee. "Moon Brain woke up and went looking for an Alliance patrol to kill? Better she go all 'crazy woman' on them than us."

"She ain't gone out killin anyone. Tell him, Cap'n. We're not believin' she's doin' any killin' ... are we?" [Yeah ... Kaylee-anna, the eternal optimist.

"First thing the Doc is gonna do is relax. Its not the first time she's gone wandering off; and if she had done any mischief with any Alliance folk, well, I reckon they'd be already banging on our door. Jayne, she went out the top. You're the tracker, track 'er."

"Aw, Mal ... I ain't even got any breakfast yet." "Didn't say it was up for discussin'."

"She just went for a walk." Everyone turned to see River's head poking down through the open hatch. "Did a little mischief," she smiled at Mal. "And no 'little assassin' stuff," she glared at Jayne until he grumbled something about crazy girls and looked away. None of them liked it when River talked about herself in third person. “The stuff for the job, its all packed up at Mr. Universe's, stacked in crates by the elevator. We'll have to get it before the Alliance comes poking around the place. "C'm'on, Kaylee, there's playin' needs doin'," she laughed as she dropped through the hatch and stole the roll Jayne was ready to eat. *And later,* she thought to herself, * we'll see just how much a genius with machinery you really are.*

" Well you heard her," Mal said, “ lets get those crates moved and stowed.” “Captain,” Simon interjected,” When we’re done with that, you and Zoe and I need to talk … privately.”

****

“River made a request,” Simon started, “a demand rather, and, while it has a rather compelling merit, it goes beyond doctor patient confidentiality. She seems to think whomever did this to her will not stop despite the assurances of the Operative that the warrants will be dropped. And despite her rather prodigious proven skill at combat, she is vulnerable to that safe word.”

“Which don’t require no 3% to conjure,” Mal interposed. Zoe gave that slight eye thing to show her agreement with the captain. “So why are we talking about this?” “She wants me to reverse the conditioning.” Simon stifled his smirk as the quiet infirmary got quieter and colder as the battle hardened people in front of him seemed to freeze. He totally sympathized, must have even had the same look on his face when River explained it to him. “Yes, Captain, believe me, I had a day to think it through. I entirely understand your reaction.

“And, not to belabor the point, Captain, but how would you react if you were about to go off on a job and found out Jayne cut a deal to betray you and Zoe to Neska? In retrospect, I think her attacking Jayne before the Hospital Caper, was a rather restrained response, don’t you? And, she has been doing better since Miranda. I know, she’s my sister and my opinion can be perceived as prejudiced, but how much threat is she to the rest of the crew? I mean as long as no one is planning to sell her and me out to the Alliance?”

Mal looked toward Zoe, and Simon knew they were exchanging an entire conversation without moving, which made what River did by actually replying to such conversations, very less creepifying somehow. “Ok, Doc, see what you can find out … but don’t do nothin’ yet. Give us a couple of days to think this through properly.

****

It was after dinner when River opened the long coffin-like crate. It looked like a cry-baby, only less like a beer keg crammed with electronics and much more like a black-as-space snake that just ate a whole pig. “Revenge,” River stated quietly.

Mr. Universe was a genius at hacking into the cortex and extracting highly classified files. A capture with his "final wish" explained it all. Hook up the antenna, back off and send it a wave to activate it. Also the deactivation command, just in case, because if anyone tried to open it or deactivate it without the proper access code "it would look like the birth of a new sun." “That’s the job? Just dump it in space and set it off, for which we get paid a king’s ransom.” “Only if we don’t care that it only broadcasts until the Alliance can triangulate in and blow it out of the black,” River replied, “seems a shame to have a state of the art cortex node with advanced hacking capability wrapped in a stealthy case playing target drone.” She pointed to the other crates. “We got mischief to make, and not much time, Monte will be here in three days.”

Zoe and Mal headed to his cabin and locked the door. Kaylee and River went to Inara's shuttle. Simon had doctor-y stuff to do in his infirmary, and Jayne had guns to clean.

*****

" 'Nara?," Kaylee called at the door to Shuttle 1. Inara opened the door, saw the girls there and immediately motioned them in and locked the door behind them. "What is it?"

"We need help ... advice," Kaylee started. "Can we really get 1,000 squares of platinum for those diamonds?" "For each of them …" Inara replied. "If you bought them from an honest gem merchant, and they are, in fact, 2 carat, clear, perfect, stones, then that is a fair price to pay for them. Unfortunately, that same merchant, buying them at a fair price would only pay 800, maybe 850." “Can't sell for what he pays for them and live," River added. "That's right, River," Inara agreed. "If I can get to a chapter house on Persephone, or Ariel, I can probably get closer to full value. It depends on how badly people want their share in actual money."

"Ain't never imagined that much money, afore," Kaylee said, all excited and bouncy. "Don't know what to do with it all." "Which is why you're here?" "Yeah, can't really put it all in the bank. Alliance finds it they could freeze the account like they did Simon's when he broke River out, same if I gave it to my parents and they put it in the bank. And I would like to give them some, my brothers and sisters too. Can't really keep it on Serenity, if the Alliance searched her and found it." "But, we still want access to it, in case we want to buy shoes or a dress, or something," River added.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to buy some clothes for both of you, for this meeting, assuming I can set something up.

*****

Everyone was getting ... testy, and not just the crew of Serenity. A week, gone by and even the military schedule of The Alliance was not enough to prevent boredom. After all, SOP was "fly to exotic places, meet interesting people, make their lives misreable ... or just kill 'em, don't much matter." Not that tempers never flared, arguments never broke out, a punch ot ten was never thrown. Just part of the job description for the bosun and XO. Resolve disputes, end arguments, punish the instigators and malcontents. Of course, the serious stuff, stabbings and shootings, sabotage, dereliction of duty went to the captain. But usually he was content to let them do their jobs.

It just seemed the sargeants were encouraged and encouraging the various squads and platoons to engage, as long as there was no serious injury to anyone. Even the morning exercise the Operator and River engaged in sparked sparring matches, sometimes ad hoc sometimes set up as an "official" steam venting when people had no other way to settle their differences. Even Zoe and Jayne got into the action sometimes; Jayne because he just had the need to shoot somebody and punching worked as well, Zoe because she was hurting over Wash's death and there were no Reavers around to pummel and she blamed the Alliance for creating the Reavers in the first place.

All of which amused Simon and frustrated Mal even more because his wound was slow to heal, and there was just so much arguing with Inara a body could do in a day. River and Kaylee were off doing girl things [hopefully]. Inara could fight with Mal, then retire to her shuttle and do Companion things, practice her calligraphy, make tea, sort her clothes. And Mal could check on the pieces of his ship and act all captain-y.

Evenings were spent with Jayne working out, Zoe listening to River playing with Wash's dinosaurs making up stories which frequently made Zoe cry with grief, but somehow let her feel better after. Kaylee and Simon spent their evenings catching up on their romance, though his own ineptitude would put at least a damper on their activities. Somebody should have been taking notes on River's dinoplays because she was doing some serious internal dialog and replay of what happened to her at the "academy." Sometimes it was the T-Rex and the Stegosaur torturing the brontosarus (River), sometimes the two just watching River alone or River and the other children at the Academy n interacting.

Sometimes she could feel IT lurking, watching, listening. As long as she paid attention and didn't get too wrapped up in the stories, IT just stayed there waiting for the opportunity to ... what, imprison her consciousness, take over her body? She was aware when it happened, it wasn't like MPD with holes in her memory. She was just frozen out, unable to affect her body but be forced to watch what IT did with her.

Jayne heard it all. Jayne got creeped out by it. Jayne started having his own nightmares. Jayne finally went to Simon and Mal. Simon's first impulse was to drug her with smoothers. It was Zoe that ended that discussion. "Forget she's a 17 year old girl. Forget she's never been in combat. Remember Bendis? How many other soldiers, how many officers have you heard sound just like that?" Zoe and Mal exchanged a wary look, both remembering a previous conversation. "Thanks Jayne," Mal said in his captain-y voice, "We'll discuss this with the Doc."

When the door closed behind Jayne, Mal continued "We been needin' ta have this talk with you anyways. Now seems like as good a time as any." "Yes," Simon sighed, "I've been expecting it."